Not too long ago, I sat on the back porch swing watching the sun go down. I had just learned my daughter had Aspergers and there was so much else pulling at me.

I found myself trying hard to support my three children in their needs, trying to be the good wife, trying to be a ministry leader and owner of a new online women’s magazine. And then there was this new life growing inside of me.

I didn’t know how to talk to God, let alone tell him my fears or shake the dread that followed every time I thought about this new baby. I tried to talk to my husband, mentors, and friends. Nothing eased the exhaustion gnawing away the deep places in my heart, demanding answers.

Trying, trying, trying….

And then life shattered into a million little pieces. All I could do was sob and say, “Jesus.” The baby was gone, my ministry was gone, and the perfect life I thought I had created was gone but this is where my prayer life began.

Trying isn’t what God promised when he said he wanted us to have life and to live it abundantly.

Raw and emotional, I began talking to God and it was during these tender moments when I learned how to pray. I learned God wasn’t some old man on a cloud, granting wishes to those who pleased him most.

I learned God wanted to hear my fears, worries, and dreams. As life began to heal, I started to “talk” to him throughout the day and I found him answering me during the dishes, the school shuttle, and even when I couldn’t utter more than “thank you” or “Jesus.”

Over time I learned how to pray for my husband, how to cover my children in prayer, and I as I learned how to journal my prayers, I had a record of when God answered my prayers.

When I talked to Julie about the power of prayer, something sparked within us, “Wouldn’t someone want to be a fly on the wall during our conversations?”

“You mean eaves dropping on a conversation between a 30 something mom and a 40 something mama?” Let’s Talk About Prayer was born.

Looking back to that day when I sat on the porch swing, little did I realize the longing in my heart was to connect with Jesus—to know he understood the depths of my heart, to be able to talk to him. Are you feeling the same way? Then join us.

Over the next 7 Days, Julie and I will be answering key questions covered in the book and then some. Along with the book, this 7 Day Devotional Challenge will nourish your soul, equipping you with the tools to pray, and establishing a new way to pray.

Are you ready? If you haven’t signed up for the prayer challenge, click here:

Join Us

Before you leave my tiny part of the web, let me introduce you to my wonderful, dear sweet friend and mentor: Julie Sanders!

Another busy week and I’m so thrilled my oldest will finally be done with school for the summer. I have so many plans to grow their faith and to grow closer as a family. I’m counting on the late nights catching fireflies, gooey s’mores, skipping rocks at the lake, and moments of worship on Sundays to hear God speak to my mothering heart. Our journals will become a part of our morning routine, after we wake up late, grab breakfast and wait for Elijah’s medicine to kick in.

My son’s devotion time will consist of reading Jesus Calling.

Little miss five-year-old Tori Grace’s time will include reading a letter and then drawing her scripture verses plus what she learned in her letter from her “Daddy King.”

And my teenager, her’s includes this awesome devotional

I love watching them read their devotionals and then read today’s verse, and I love it even more when I see their prayers scribbled, drawn, and scrawled across the pages of their journals.

My dream is that this time of journaling and reviewing the same scripture together becomes a sweet memory of their childhood–where they’ll look back and think, “this is how my faith grew,” despite the difficult days, the moments when I bit my lip to get through it as they fought me tooth and nail to stay focused, to read through it and to just get it done.

I assure you there will be days like that–and that is okay!!!!

A quick note for my new subscribers.In January, I challenged my readers to Pray and Journal Scriptures as a family. Each Sunday I post verses for your family to use. Each family time is different, yours may consist of one journal where everyone reads the scripture and then writes their prayers.

Others like mine have individual journals. Each family may write out simple prayer request, or use acrostics like the word JOY (Jesus.Others.Self) to journal, and still others simple recite the verse on the way to work, school, etc, talk about it and then pray out loud.

Each family’s life is different–but the point is to make the Bible come to life in your child’s life.

We’re only in week 10 because of my recent trip to the Philippines, crazy work schedule, and other things. But, like myself, I’m asking you NOT to give up–life happens.

My Prayers for the challenge and for you

I’d love to hear from you, your struggles, your ideas, and tips. My prayer is my blog would become a community for mom’s who want to dive into real life issues, to grow their faith, to encourage each other and come here for encouragement–and I can’t do that without YOU.

Leave a comment, post this is to your Facebook Page, Pin it to your Pinterest Page, talk about it with your friends.

How are you doing with prayer and journaling? It’s been tough a few nights for us. Either our son doesn’t want to sit still, our teen would prefer to be hiding in her bedroom, or our youngest is just itching to irritate her brother.

Granted there are nights when we sit as a family, I’m gritting my teeth because I would already like to be at the end of our bedtime routine. AT.THE.END. There are nights when I can’t stand the idea of sitting at the table at the BEGINNING of our routine for the night.

Despite the soar jaw from gritting my teeth, the aching head from all the chaos and feeling drained as I summoned all the patience I could muster I know God is planting seeds. God is at work in their hearts reminding them (even if it’s just a nano-second) of a reminder) he is The Man. He is the one to give thanks, who gives joy, provides for their needs, and answers all prayers in one form or another.

Here it goes, are you ready? For those of you who are new, I am challenging moms to get real with their children’s prayer lives. My family and I are making a commitment to pray each day, but I also know how life gets the best of us and if it doesn’t happen for three crazy nights in a row–its OKAY!

Prayer Journals:

1. Each child can have their own prayer journal. Here they can record:

Personal prayers

Prayers for others

Gratitude–what are they thankful for.

Note: For little kids, they can either color a picture or use certain colors like red for being angry, blue because they are thankful for something God did, etc.

2. Community Prayer Journal.

The entire family uses the same journal. We used this concept when the kids were little, it also allowed me to go back and pray over my husband’s prayers later on.

So I’m challenging moms to have their family use individual prayer journals or a community prayer journal to write out their prayers after reading one scripture verse each day. Each week I will post a set of new verses to use.

Scriptures to Read to Your Kids

Week 1:

Monday: Mark 10:13-14 And they were bringing children to Him so that He might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and said to them, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Tuesday: James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Wednesday: 2 Timothy 1:7For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Thursday: Proverbs 29:22 An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins.

Friday: Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Saturday: Proverbs 12: 25 Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up.

You’re probably thinking, “Yo, Heather!! It’s not even Christmas yet and you’re already talking New Years? SLOW DOWN! I promise I have a good reason to post this today, perhaps it’s something you can start on Christmas Eve like we will be after church and before we open presents. 🙂

“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord. ~Isaiah 59:21 – Bible Gateway

Seemingly simple words, a simple scripture right? Not so for me, in fact it’s ignited a challenge for the year of 2014. Instead of the simple resolutions that focus on ridding my thighs of cottage cheese, or the ever growing waistline (Hey–I LOVE food) or even the crazy resolutions of running a marathon (Yes…sadly I am training for one :-)), this psalm brought to mind my prayer journal and the acronym of PRAISE I began using to journal my prayers.

It brought to mind my children and training them in righteousness and my fear of their faith hanging on my apron strings. During a late night dinner, my husband and I talked about ways we could grow our children’s faith and make it so it could become their own-without killing us.

I know families who pray together every night before bed, and still others who lay on the floor of one child’s bedroom awaiting to see if they sense God’s response and still others who read devotions before bed. Not so with our family. Given the wide age gaps, the crazy personalities, combined with my crazy late work hours and not to mention all of us having some form of ADD–family time doesn’t go well unless we are all moving and shaking somehow.

So the crazy idea came to me: why not journal?

Really, why not?

We bought simple notebooks for the kids and freshly sharpened pencils with the idea of our children sitting in their beds, while we as parents read a simple scripture and asked the kids to either draw a picture of their prayers or write one word or a string of words.

For my oldest who has Aspergers, we’ve encouraged her to not only journal her prayers but to also use hues of colors to express her joys, sorrows and confusion…and perhaps the latest crush on a boy she likes 🙂

My mom heart hopes my children will understand the power of prayer. There is a real world outside the front door and it’s time to get real with them about faith, about Jesus and how to use their little voices to change their world.

Will you join me in the year of 2014? Each Sunday I will post a scripture and prayer journal template for little ones if you so choose to use. I plan to try to get in prayer time as many nights week but I am not holding myself to this expectation because life happens.

And because I believe in community and I believe we have the ability to shape and sharpen each other, I would love to hear how you are strengthening your family’s faith in 2014. Please tell me, tell all 3,500 views each week what you plan to do.

Prayer Journals

If you want to start a Family Tradition of Journaling Prayers together, this week is a great week to start. This can be done several ways:

2. Purchase cheap notebooks for each family. You can purchase plain notebooks or have your children pick one ones with their favorite characters on it.

3. One large notebook and then designate an area for the journal to lay out where everyone has access to it. I did this in the past and used my sofa table. We called it the prayer alter. The notebook laid open with today’s prayers and next to it was a copy of today’s Bible verse and I kept a jar of pencils, pens, and colored pencils.

4. Then choose a time of day to talk about prayers, either at dinner or bedtime; ask if their prayers were answered. If they were, grab the journal, write out how it was answered and assign that day’s date. It’s an amazing testament to go back through the journals a few months later or even a year later to see how God moved to answer prayers. It’s an amazing faith builder.

How to Begin

1.Print out the scripture journal verses and place them where your family can see them as they write out their prayers (either in their own notebook or binder or at the prayer alter).

2. Read the verse and ask your kids what it means to them. Let them think about it, then journal a sentence about what it means.

*To simplify, they don’t have to journal about the verse but you can still recite one verse to them a day to bring God’s word into their lives.

3. Then have your kids use the acronym JOY to journal.

JOY

J- Jesus – What are you thankful for in your life today?

O-Others-Who needs prayer, your brother, teacher, grandma?

Y-You- What do you need prayer for? Do you need help to control your temper, to share more?

2. Time. Select a time that works for your family. Whether it’s in the morning, right after school or before bed; find a time and designate it as prayer time.

3. Let go of expectations. Like I said before, life happens. If you don’t get to it today or tomorrow, that’s okay. The important thing to remember is you are laying the foundation for them to build upon. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will their prayer life. 🙂